1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to survival equipment and, in particular, to life preserver equipment that protects, provides buoyancy, and preserves a skier's life in snow avalanches.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Heretofore, the survival of a person caught in an avalanche depended, in part, on one's ability to use a swimming motion to try to stay on top of the snow slide until it stopped moving. This technique can be combined with the use of a small electronic device which incorporates a transmitter and receiver worn on one's clothing. Survival of the avalanche victim then depended on other trained people in the group that are wearing these devices to locate the buried victim and dig the person from underneath the snow before suffocation and death occurred. These rescue persons remain in danger of burial from a second avalanche.
The Avalanche Survival Vest in Patent No. 4,365,628 approached the problem of avalanche survival by providing a way to continue breathing for a while after one was buried in the snow, unless the weight of the snow would not allow for the expansion of the lungs.
The present invention will protect the person from becoming submerged in the snow by quickly and totally enclosing one's body in a large pressurized protective sphere and allowing one to float and bounce on top of a snow slide, rather than allowing the snow to surround a person's extremities and drag the body underneath the sliding snow. The protective device is constructed with two or more concentric spheres formed with a pliable and imprevious material forming spaced chambers whereby the same can be inflated.